I fully believe in comfort nursing. I know it’s completely natural and important for the milk supply, and I’m very thankful that my 9-week-old babies love the breast so much. The problem is, I have twins and I’ve never found a comfortable tandem feeding position. They all either hurt my back, my hands, or my shoulders too much to do for more than a few minutes. I have the Brest Friend twins pillow and I try new positions every day, but haven’t found one that I can sustain for hours in front of the TV during the evening fusses. Also, my babies want to be on the breast nearly 24 hours a day, including at night. We cosleep and I switch back and forth ALL NIGHT LONG to keep them happy, but it isn’t enough and I don’t think I can keep it up much longer. I tried “biological nursing” on a pile of pillows at night, but their little heads flop around too much and the three of us couldn’t get comfortable.

They gave up their pacifiers at five weeks. They had thrush and I think that’s why. They’ve been spitting them out ever since. When my husband is home in the evening, he can usually sooth them with a lot of rocking, holding, and/or skin-to-skin and they like their swings pretty well when I’m alone with them. But they still suck on their hands and cry a lot of the time. Nursing is the only way they can fall asleep most of the time.

On top of this, I go back to work on Monday. My husband is taking a couple of months off work to care for them. After that, they will start day care. Any tips for soothing babies who want to be on the breast but can’t? Is there a way to help them feel comforted by the pacifiers again? Is there a special type of pacifier that is more like the breast? I’d guess that this phase won’t last a whole lot longer. 9 weeks is one of the big stages for fussing and comfort nursing, correct?

May 18th, 2013, 03:10 PM

@llli*ky.momma12

Re: How to survive comfort nursing?

I, too, have a comfort nurser. He will be a year old at the end of the month and still will only go to sleep if he's being nursed. It was a lot worse while he was younger (by worse, I mean he did it much more often), but still comforts nurses even now. I'm not sure how to help you with finding comfortable positions with twins, but maybe this website can help? http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/bre...tfeeding-twins. As for a paci, my son quit taking his early as well but he really liked the Gerber First Essentials. They're fairly large and I assume more appealing to a breast fed baby. Hope things get more comfortable for you and y'all find a position that everyone can enjoy :-)

May 18th, 2013, 03:37 PM

@llli*ky.momma12

Re: How to survive comfort nursing?

Also, there's a forum on this website dedicated to tandem nursing, you may want to check that out :-)

May 18th, 2013, 04:32 PM

@llli*sonogirl

Re: How to survive comfort nursing?

I do not have twins, but I have a LO who just lived for frequent comfort nursing, and I was a WRECK about going back to work. I couldn't imagine how she would adjust to my mom as caregiver, but she did! My daughter hates pacifiers, so that wasn't an option. Your husband and the babies will work something out, I promise. What works for my mom and daughter is dancing to her favorite music. Walking, dancing, white noise, rocking, singing...these are all things that my mom and husband can use when I am not around with great success. (Me? Not a chance. If mom is available, baby wants to nurse. But baby knows she can't nurse when I am not here!)

I can also say that the sheer length of comfort nursing sessions went down for me somewhere at the 14-16 week point. I also had a baby who wanted to be attached nearly 24/7 prior to that point! So, I can't offer tips to help with the two babies aspect of it, but I bet you are getting really close to a turning point.

May 18th, 2013, 06:55 PM

@llli*maddieb

Re: How to survive comfort nursing?

Hi Maegan Alberta! I have not been sure how to respond, I really don't have any concrete ideas except-when it comes to parenting young babies, sometimes ya simply gotta do what ya gotta do. Some mothers, and some mothers of twins especially, sometimes find they not able to always nurse totally and exclusively on cue. Some find they need another caregiver to give a bottle at times and/or to find a paci or other comfort measure (swaddling etc) that works. And it's ok! Again, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Plus moms who are back at work early on are going to have even more of a challenge in this area sometimes.

But I hope it is helpful to recognize that your babies are normal, in the biological sense, and it is the current societal norm of moms working apart from their infants in the very early months that is not normal, from a biological standpoint. Biologically the human design expects mom to be with her babies and young children, and in that circumstance, nursing is usually a easy way to deal with a young baby's constant need for comfort so mom can do otehr tasks. The fact a baby can be calmed and satisfied so easily-fed and comforted all at once-is actually a HELP to mothers. It does not seem that way early on for many of us of course! When my lacation consultant told me this early on I thought she was two stops west of crazytown. But I learned differently as time went on. Nursing -comfort nursing-actually becomes helpful to mothers, in my experience.

That is how nursing is designed to work, biologically speaking. Nature would not make something so important as nursing our young so hard. It does not make sense from a biological perspective. It is made hard, in many cases, by other forces and expectations. We can change that reality pretty succesfully at times with pacifiers and pumps, helpers and other comforting methods, etc. but sometimes the reality still hits us in the face.

I assume by comfort nursing you mean, nursing for some reason other than hunger. Nursing to sleep, nursing to satisfy the need to suckle, rather than nursing strictly for nourishment. But even a baby who is comfort nursing is getting nourishment. No it's not as much, not coming as fast, but milk is still coming.
Comfort nursing is not a phase. Nor is it something unusual only some babies do. Babies comfort nurse for the entire time they breastfeed, and almost all babies do this to some extent. Babies of all ages, toddlers, and older nurselings, all nurse for both comfort and milk. In fact, I really doubt that to a baby, there is any difference between comfort nursing and nursing for some other reason. It's all comfort nursing to baby.

If you mean, nursing constantly, that will certainly begin to decrease over time, normally. Your babies are still very young, and you have two of them. Of course, that is making this period feel even more overwhelming than for mothers of singletons.

May 20th, 2013, 12:58 AM

@llli*nathansmum

Re: How to survive comfort nursing?

Have you tried a hawaiian Gumdrop pacifier? It was the only kind my son would take. I would not leave the house without one when he was 9 weeks old.